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Primary Documents - Crown Prince Wilhelm's Request to Lead His Army into Germany, 11 November 1918

With Germany actively
seeking an armistice and revolution threatening, calls for
Kaiser
Wilhelm II to abdicate grew in intensity. Wilhelm was
himself deeply reluctant to make such a sacrifice, instead expressing a
preference to lead his armies back into Germany from the Western Front.
Upon being informed by his military advisers that the army could not be
relied upon not to harm him
Wilhelm abandoned the notion.

In the wake of the Kaiser's
abdication his eldest son -
Crown Prince Wilhelm -
expressed a desire on 11 November 1918 - the
date of the armistice - to be
allowed to lead his army back home to Germany
(reproduced below together with the government's reply). His wish was, given the
anti-royalist fervour of the moment, rejected out of hand by the government.
He too went into exile in Holland, despatching a letter to Hindenburg
following his arrival in which
he explained and justified his position.